Quilting, Sewing, Crafting and Life

Category: #swapaddict

Hello, August!

It’s so cliche to start with “I can’t believe it’s August already”, but all summer I have felt like life is stuck in fast forward. I wrote “June” twice yesterday when signing forms at the doctor. I am glad I decided this summer to take a hiatus from my craft projects, sewing orders and swaps because my kids are here 24 hours a day, plus I actually like leaving the house in the summer. While my kids are happy to watch TV all their waking hours so I can work on projects,I do like them to see the sun occasionally. I signed them up for a bunch of small activities, all of which seemed to happen in the last three weeks. We have lived in the car and eaten a majority of our meals as picnics on park benches or en route to the next thing. Thankfully the bulk of the actives are wrapping up and they only have a few things left this summer, but we’re planning some family adventures for August, so I don’t know when I will get back to my sewing room. Continue reading “August News”

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This is a kind of a big deal, I am even dusting off this old blog to announce that I wrote a book. It’s called #swapaddict and I am really proud of it. When I started doing craft swaps I searched Google and Pinterest and was not able to find much information to help me learn more about swapping, so I wrote one myself! After a couple years and several dozen swaps, I hope someone will find my experiences valuable. I have gotten so much from this online swapping community, I wanted to contribute too. This was a major undertaking and a lot more work than I expected, but it’s done and out in the world and I am doing a giveaway to celebrate!

The book includes chapters on swap basics, etiquette, hosting a swap and several links to templates to help you stay organized. It is available now for $2.99 from Amazon and Kobo, Google Play,iBooks and Barnes and Noble.

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Well, here we are almost half way through 2016 and I am actually half way through my 52 Quilts in 2016 project! Most of the finished quilts have been mini quilts for myself or for swap projects, but I am pretty proud of the work I have completed this year so far. I am a pretty lackluster blogger though. I seem to be able to finish the projects but not remember to post about them. This one is more than a month old. Sorry for the delay.

I made this for a Parks and Rec swap earlier this spring. I love the show, but for some reason I had a really hard time converting the show into craft. I used this inspirational quote from Andy Dwyer and did a mini quilt with combined paper pieced letters and embroidered text.

I saw this raccoon fabric at the store and it cracked me up. If you have ever watched Parks and Rec there is a background joke that Pawnee, IN is overrun with Raccoons. I think it was a perfect detail, but then I sort of wondered what on earth anyone would use this photo-real raccoon fabric for if not for an ironic in-joke.

For the label I made a little iron-on talk bubble. Because, Talking Raccoon.

I used my Silhouette Cameo again for extras. I made a coffee mug that said JJ’s Diner, and a mason jar coin bank with “Treat Yo’ Self” on it,

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The most recent swap I participated in was a short turn around but it was really fun. The theme was “Double Mini” meaning it was a mini quilt that also had miniature dimensions. It couldn’t be larger than 8” on a side. I used a charm pack of Tula Pink fabric and this free Prismatic Medallion pattern (reduced to 50%)

The hexagonal binding was a new challenge but I think the grey stripes is a fun addition.

I didn’t quite get it right the first time, it was too small. But I finished it (and another) anyway, since I had it already cut out. I gave one to a friend and the second is hanging in my sewing room on my Mini Wall.

There were enough scraps leftover to make a couple little pouches so I included one of those and some rainbow thread when I sent the package.

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I am such a delinquent blogger. I made this little mini Team Ironman quilt a couple months ago for my 2016 Birthday Fun Swap. The birthday girl of the month was a huge Marvel fan, especially Ironman. I made this mini quilt with a free pattern from Quiet Play.

For the rest of the package, I included a Sew-Together bag by Sew Demented, which I did in Marvel theme.

I included some fun extras, including a tumbler I decorated with vinyl and my Silhouette Cameo, a couple decals and some Ant Man and Iron Man goodies.

The #maythe4thMQS swap I hosted has gone pretty smoothly. For the most part, people have all shipped on time, checked in and the quilts they’ve made are nothing short of amazing.

I had one swapper contact me and let me know she had a family emergency and she was concerned she wouldn’t be able to ship on time. I told her not to worry, family always comes first. And I stepped in and made this little Droid-inspired mini quilt in her place.

I used the Quiet Play patterns for the droids and added the text with my embroidery machine. How cute are R2 and C3PO?

I had a little fun practicing with my free-motion quilting and in addition to swirls, I added stars, which was something new.

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A few months ago I decided to organize a mini quilt swap of my own. It was a Star Wars themed quilt swap, with the shipping dates just before the Star Wars holiday, May the 4th (be with you!) You can see all the incredible mini Quilts on Instagram with the hashtag #maythe4thMQS (Seriously, how amazing are some of these quilts!)

I had 3 volunteers who helped me organize, so we were each placed on another team so we could participate in a blind swap. Then something crazy happened. One of my very favorite quilt pattern designers, Kristy from Quiet Play, signed up for my swap. I am a super Quiet Play fangirl so I was beyond excited. Then she started making all sorts of Star Wars inspired paper piece patterns for the swap, which was even cooler. Then something EVEN crazier happened, I got my partner assignment and guess who I was assigned to make a mini quilt for? Yep, Kristy. So. Intimidating. Plus, all those crazy cool patterns were totally not an option…

She requested a mini quilt for her son’t Star Wars room, so I decided to do Applique the main characters from The Force Awakens, Rey, BB-8, Poe and Finn.

Personally, I think BB-8 is pretty much the cutest thing ever. I adore him. Rey, Finn and Poe are such great new characters, I thin they made a great quilt.

I did some wavy line quilting to make the sand look more like sand, and added some lines in the sky. I haven’t really used appliqués for creating a scene in a mini before but I can see myself doing it again, I mean how cute did they turn out?

The backing I just did some basic Star Wars fabric, and bound it with some Force Awakens text fabric.

I did a special label, also with the embroidery machine, which was something new for me too.

Before I sent the package off to Australia for May the 4th, I decided I should include something just for Kristy (since the packages was largely for her kiddos.) so I used her mini Death Star pattern and did a fun little rainbow twist and put it together as a zip pouch.

Since the package needed to ship to Australia, I tried to find fun, lightweight extras for her kids, so I ended up sending Legos, stickers, tattoos, pencils and a couple small toys. It arrived on May the 4th, so the timing was perfect, and most importantly, Kristy loved it! (Whew, since I was totally sweating making something for someone who’s work I admire so much!)